Slavery in its ease.

Imagine you had a little tiny person in your pocket that performed small tasks for you, including:

Ferrying messages from you to your friends/co-workers/family very quickly,

Learning and remembering useful information you are too busy to remember, such as the exact digits of pi, the weather for tomorrow, or what order your classes/shifts/meetings/etc are in and the times they are on.

Amusing you when you grow bored with small games and songs it remembers.

Calculation of numbers and measurements, including currency differences and change.

You need to purchase this slave, but otherwise you need only feed it and pay for postage on the messages you send.

This is how I think of my phone. It does all those things and more.
It never complains (except where such information is of some benefit to me) and only through my poor treatment will it cease to function. Buying a new one and simply throwing my old one away would not be a particularly odd thing to do, and only insofar as it being a waste of money, rather than it being a cruel thing to do to the phone. I frequently berate my phone mildly for not performing tasks fast enough or correctly, such as "stupid thing send already I have four bars of reception!" or perhaps "turn on faster!" or "shut up I'm in class!" when I know it is only doing what I commanded of it to the best of it's ability.
We don't treat our slaves very well. When they die we don't morn them, but the service they performed. I have known some people to deliberately try to harm their phone so they might have the excuse to buy another. Perhaps some care for them. But not too much I wager.

I want a new electronic pocket slave now. The Siri features on the iPhone 4s look so cool (and I already use voice control a lot) and the Galaxy S II has some pretty amzing hardware.

I might just wait for the iPhone five though. Not because I'm a fanboy, well, I am a bit of a fanboy. Well, I like apple. They make things that are smart, look good, and make sense. Everything I value in a woman. WOAH SEXIST. Not really. I value that in men too. May as well objectify people, while I personify objects.

But really. I've said this before. People personify. It's one of the ways we deal with a confusing reality. I'm just taking a logical step: admitting I personify and amusing myself with my blatant fiction.

I leave you with this question: What slaves do you keep? What is it in your life that serves you, never speaks, and you don't think about very much.

Minus a billion points if you immediately answered 'Mum*'

*'mom' if American/strange.